


Bloody Awful Evening

by Izzybutt



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-04
Updated: 2014-10-04
Packaged: 2018-02-19 20:56:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2402609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Izzybutt/pseuds/Izzybutt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Late at night, working in the K-Sci lab, Hermann gets an unexpected visitor, who is also dealing with an unexpected visitor. Written for Hermann Gottbleed week, and also a self-fill on the Kink Meme.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bloody Awful Evening

**Author's Note:**

> I know it's not a traditional example of 'Hermann Gottlieb + blood', but I was inspired as soon as I heard about this week, and had to write this.

It is a cool, November day in Hong Kong when it happens. Not an attack – no, something far, far worse. Something he simply could not have been prepared for.  
Hermann is seated at his computer terminal in the K-Science lab, working out the last few bugs in the Mark-3 code. Within the next year, they will be coming off the line, so there is a lot of pressure on him to finish quickly, but accuracy is his main concern. 

He is alone, as everyone has gone to their respective quarters by now. The silence is distracting. Not so much the silence itself, but every little tiny sound that breaks it: A droplet of water dripping from the faucet, an off-key note in the buzzing of the fluorescent lights, a quiet set of tiny footsteps.

He looks up at the clock. Past 22:30 already. No one is ever in this late except for him. Perhaps one of the others forgot something? 

“Hello?” He calls out, pushing his chair just slightly to the left, so that he can see into the hall. “Is someone there?”

He sees a tiny figure moving out of the shadows, towards him. “Dr. Gottlieb?” She sniffles. 

“Miss Mori.” He takes his cane in hand, and standing up. She’s not with the Marshal (He’s in Alaska, after all, looking after the opening of the new Shatterdome there), but he still stands out of habit, and out of respect. “It’s rather late, isn’t it? Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

She sniffles again, bringing one hand to wipe at her eyes. Her other one is clutching at her stomach. 

“Do you… not feel well, Miss Mori?” He asks, taking a few steps towards her. 

She shakes her head, and then starts crying even harder. 

“My dear, what’s wrong?” He steps closer. 

“I’m dying.” She sobs. 

For a moment, Hermann just stands there, unsure of how to respond. He wants to say, ‘Of course you’re not,’ because she’s a child, and children are often rather silly and overdramatic, but Mako is clearly in pain, and she’s such a mature little girl that he can’t imagine her doing this for attention. So, instead, he asks, “Now, what makes you think that, my dear?” 

Her face reddens, and she wipes burning tears from her eyes, shaking her head. 

Hermann sighs. “Now, Miss Mori, I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

She hesitates for a moment, staring at his shoes. “I’m… bleeding. It hurts.” She sniffles again. 

“Bleeding? Oh, goodness, where? Have you hurt yourself?” He steps closer, tugging her tiny arms away from her abdomen so he can see the damage. He immediately assumes that she’s fallen, or gotten hit by a piece of equipment or something. This is a military base, after all, and there are dangers around every corner. No place for a child – even a very mature one – to be wandering about unsupervised. 

When he looks, though, there is no wound there. In fact, he cannot see any wound on her at all. 

“Miss Mori… from where exactly are you bleeding?” He asks, a little uncertain, now. Surely Mako wouldn’t make it up.

“Down… down there.” She whispers, her cheeks positively scarlet. 

“Oh.” 

Hermann feels sick. 

He gulps, hard. “Did… Mako, did anyone… hurt you?” He asks, tentatively. “Or… touch you… down there?” He’s going to be sick. He’s going to kill whoever did this to her, and then be sick, but he will definitely be sick at some point. The Marshal will be positively furious. He takes such good care of this little girl, and to think of some perverted individual–

“No.” Mako shakes her head, interrupting his internal tirade. She’s looking up at him, confused. “My belly has been hurting all day. I thought it was something I ate, but… but then I went to the bathroom, and…” She’s sniffling again. 

“Oh.”

Hermann feels sick again, but for different reasons. Well, this is certainly preferable to finding out that she’s been hurt by someone, or hurt herself, but… 

Oh god he has no idea what to do.

But there is a crying child in front of him, so the urge to calm and reassure her comes fairly naturally, at least. 

“Now, now, don’t… don’t cry, Miss Mori.” Hermann reaches out and pats her on the shoulder, then realizes immediately after what an awkward gesture it is. “You… I am sure it is nothing so dramatic. You’re going to be fine.”

“But… I’m bleeding.” She emphasizes. “It won’t stop.” 

“It’s… yes, well, it’s…” He stammers a bit. “It’s… normal.” 

She stares at him. 

“Well, not… I can understand your… it’s… you know what, why don’t I just take you down to Medical, and they can explain it all?”

“Okay…” She nods, wiping her eyes. “But… I’m not dying?”

“No, dear, you’re not dying.” He smiles, and takes her hand, leading her down the hall. “One of the doctors will take care of you, I promise.”

 

“ …. What do you mean, ‘They’re all under quarantine?!’” 

“Sorry, sir.” The guard just shrugs. Hermann feels a little like punching him, which is an odd feeling for him, but today has been an odd day. 

“Sorry?! We…” Hermann grumbles under his breath for a moment, before he clears his throat and turns back to the guard. “We have a medical emergency here! What do you plan to do about this?!” He points at Mako. 

“Well… unless you wanna give her yellow fever, I’d suggest taking her away from here.” He replies. “Besides, she doesn’t look that sick to me.”

“Not that si- she…” Hermann stammers again, then steps closer, to whisper to the guard. “It’s, um… it’s her – her first… you know.” 

The guard stares at him for a moment, like he has grown two heads. Then it clicks in.

“Ohhh…” He nods, understanding, then claps Hermann on the back. “Good luck, buddy.”

Hermann is sure that he has never sputtered that much before in his life.

 

“Alright, Plan B, then.” He sighs, getting Mako sat down on one of the (metal, not fabric!) chairs in K-Science, and gets Dr. Geiszler on the phone. 

“Mornin’, Lima K-Sci, Newt speaking.” A yawning voice answers. For a moment it throws Hermann, before he remembers that there is almost a half-day distance between them. 

“Dr. Geiszler, this is Dr. Gottlieb calling. I, um… I require your… biological expertise.” 

“Oh, yeah, you guys got a new sample in or something? Gimme the specs, dude.” 

“No, no, um… Newton, this is more… more personal.” Not to mention embarrassing.

“Personal? Okay, what’s up?” Newt sounds oddly concerned, despite his casual vernacular. 

“It’s… well, this evening I was just working on the code for the Mark-3s, when I got… a visitor.”

“A sexy visitor?” 

“NEWTON!” 

“What? It’s an honest question!” Dear god, he’s laughing, now. This is a disaster. “Don’t think I don’t know what you get up to against that chalkboard, dude.”

“Newton…” He growls, warningly. 

“I mean, whatever gets you off, man, but you’re gonna rub all those equations off of there if you –“

“FOR GOD’S SAKE, NEWTON, WILL YOU LET ME SPEAK?!” 

There’s silence on the other end. 

“… Well, you gonna talk or what, dude?” 

Hermann just lets out a long sigh, and then gives the phone to Mako. “Here, it’s Dr. Geiszler. You remember him?” She nods. “Good, just… tell him what you told me. You don’t have to be scared or… or embarrassed or anything. He may act like an idiot but he’s… he’s smart when it counts.”

He takes a few steps away, and sits down in his own chair, while Mako talks on the phone. She shifts uncomfortably in her seat, and rubs at her stomach every so often. Hermann feels bad for her, and desperately wishes he could help, but the only information he has on the subject is based on Karla’s first, when he and his brother were simply given the ‘Your sister is a woman now, so once a month just stay out of her way or incur her wrath’ talk. 

Mako gets up and comes over to his desk, cradling the phone against her collarbone. “Paper?” She whispers, miming the action of writing. 

“Oh, yes, of course.” He gets her a small writing tablet, and a pen out of his desk, then slides them both over to her. She writes something down, making little ‘Mm-hmm’ sounds into the phone, as Dr. Geiszler presumably instructs her in something. 

“Mm-hmm, thank you, Dr. Geiszler.” She hands the phone back to Hermann, and he sighs.

“Yes, thank you, Newton.” 

“Hey, no problem.” He’s laughing, softly. “Seriously, though, Hermann, you are an adult, and a genius at that. You should know how the ladies work by now, dude.” 

“Forgive me if this particular topic has never come up.” He growls.

“Yeah, well at least now you’ll know what to do for next time. You got pen and paper, dude?” 

“Yes?” He holds his hand out for his writing tablet again, and Mako rips off the top sheet with her own notes, before handing it over. 

“Okay, good. I’ve given Mako all the deets on becoming a woman and shit, and what she needs to get, but you need to take her to the pharmacy to get some stuff, okay?”

“Yes, I… I suppose I can do that.” What choice does he have at this point, really?

Newt gives him a list of things to get for Mako – a hot water bottle, some particular type of aspirin, chocolate, for whatever reason – and he writes it all down, before ripping the sheet off, stuffing it into his pocket. 

“You good?” He can still hear him laughing, the smug bastard. 

“Yes, Newton, that… that will be all, thank you.” His hand clenches on his cane, and he stands up, hanging up the phone before Newt can make another bad joke or laugh at him again. 

Mako regards him for a moment, biting her lip. Hermann sighs, then reaches out, and she takes his hand. 

 

Thankfully, they manage to catch a cab and find an all-night pharmacy without much difficulty. 

“You, um… you know what to look for?” Hermann asks, stopped in front of the ‘Feminine Health’ aisle, or whatever those Chinese characters translate to. He’s still learning, and only has the basics. 

“Mm-hmm.” She nods, then takes a deep breath and heads down the aisle by herself. 

“Al- alright, then.” He calls after her. “I’ll just… meet you at the checkout when you’re done.” He watches her for a moment, to make sure she’s okay, and then heads off to find his own supplies.

Finding a hot water bottle for Mako is easy, as well as the chocolate, but the particular brand of aspirin doesn’t appear to exist, and he has to resort to texting Dr. Geiszler, who gives him the actual ingredients of that aspirin, so he can figure out which Chinese brand is the equivalent. It takes a while, but he finds one close enough after a few minutes.

Finally, he gets to the cash, and he waits for Mako. And he waits. And waits. 

And then he starts getting concerned. 

He goes off in search of the girl, and finds her in tears where he’d left her, in the feminine health aisle. 

“Miss Mori?” He asks, quietly. 

“I don’t… there’s so many.” She sniffles, pointing, and Hermann looks at the wall. Oh dear, there really are a lot of them. Even if the packaging were in English, Hermann isn’t certain he’d know what to get.

With a sigh, he pulls out his phone, and takes a picture of the wall, then sends it to Dr. Geiszler, with the text, ‘Help’. 

A few moments later, Newt texts back, ‘The pink ones’, and Hermann pulls them off of the shelf, tossing them into his basket. How Newt knows which ones are correct, he does not want to know, but he thanks God that at least one of them does. 

“Alright?” Hermann reaches out for her hand, and she takes it, nodding.

On a whim, Hermann throws a little stuffed black kitty cat in with the rest. He remembers Karla having a well-worn stuffed rabbit that she would cuddle with, on those days of the month when she felt bad. Perhaps Mako could find the same comfort with this cat. 

 

It’s well past midnight when they finally get a cab home, and Mako is nearly falling asleep against his arm. “It feels like I am wearing a diaper.” She pouts, quietly, and Herman chuckles. The cashier had let her use the washroom before they left, and she took the opportunity to make use of her new purchase. 

“Yes, Karla used to say the same thing.” He nodded, wrapping an arm around her, letting her cuddle up against his side.

“Karla?”

“My sister.” 

“Oh.” She yawns, covering her mouth. “I did not know you had a sister, Dr. Gottlieb.”

“And two brothers.” He smiles down at her, and she smiles back.

“Are they nice?” She asks. 

“Oh… yes, most of the time.” He laughs, softly. “They are… quite nice, I suppose.”

The rest of the cab ride is silent, largely owing to the fact that Mako falls asleep right there against his side.

When they get back to the Shatterdome, Hermann regrets that he cannot simply carry her in and let her sleep on, but between his cane and the bag from the pharmacy, it’s simply not possible. So he rouses her, and guides her sleepy steps down the hall to her room. She’s old enough that he lets her get dressed for bed and brush her teeth on her own, but he doesn’t leave until she’s settled in bed, the hot water bottle wrapped in a towel on her stomach, and the little stuffed cat in her arms. 

He takes a picture of his phone and saves it, to let the Marshal look at later on, when he gets back. No doubt he will find his own heart warmed at the mere sight of it, too.

 

As he walks down the hall to his own room, it occurs to him that he is going to have to tell the Marshal about this. 

That… will be an interesting conversation.


End file.
